Fighting in the Neighborhood: What Guerrilla Games Can Teach Us About Sympathy

"In March 2011, a game called Homefront was released. You may have heard of it. It was THQ’s attempt at joining in on the fun in the modern shooter genre. It was also a dull experience that relied on holding the player’s hand through the entire game and pouring onion-juice into the player’s eyes in its many desperately emotional cutscenes. In addition, it focused on spectacular battles, Call of Duty-style, which made it seem like even more of a clone of COD than an actual attempt at originality. The setting felt fresh though, as it took the fight to suburbia. A safe haven, for most, turned into a hellish pit of rubbleg. Instead of fighting through yet another fictional country with an unpronounceable name, we fight by our homes. Homefront is not alone in trying to depict guerrilla warfare as other games – Red Faction: Guerrilla, for instance – have achieved reasonable success. Unfortunately, the guerrilla “genre” suffers from one big problem: One that can be said to affect a broader spectrum, but is illustrated well with this minor aspect. Both Homefront and Red Faction: Guerrilla failed in eliciting one very important emotion: sympathy. So how should future developers delving into this “genre” go about fixing those mistakes?"